Defect: Gratimax, LLC (Gratimax) is recalling certain 2013-2023 McElrath Trailers VX75 Xcel vacuum excavator trailers. The design of the rear impact guard resulted in the incorrect placement of the taillights. In addition, the guard may fail to prevent a vehicle from traveling under the trailer during a rear impact crash. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Veh (excerpt)
Consequence: Incorrect placement of the taillights may reduce the visibility of the trailer, increasing the risk of a crash. During a crash, a vehicle that travels under the rear of the trailer increases the risk of injury. (excerpt)
Remedy: Dealers will reposition the taillights and modify the rear impact guard, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed March 17, 2023. Owners may contact Gratimax customer service at 1-864-814-2220. Gratimax's number for this recall is 21434. (excerpt)
Do not drive: No. Park outside: No.
Investigations
0 investigations; 0 open.
Manufacturer communications
0 manufacturer communications.
Communications by system
System
Count
Notes on this record
Complaints from the API and bulk file are merged and deduplicated by ODI number; the API alone misses records.
System and subsystem counts are numbers of distinct complaints, recalls or communications that name them. One record can name several systems, so shares across systems can add to more than 100 percent; a single share never exceeds 100 percent.
Recalls are counted once per campaign, investigations once per action and manufacturer communications once per NHTSA id, even when NHTSA lists several model names for the same record.
A sales denominator is a calendar-year proxy, not the population of vehicles still in use. Rates are copied from verified pipeline output.
NHTSA's complaints API and bulk file list no complaint for this make, model and model year in this data build.